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Turkish Press Review, 08-06-05Turkish Press Review Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Turkish Directorate General of Press and Information <http://www.byegm.gov.tr>Summary of the political and economic news in the Turkish press this morning05.06.2008CONTENTS
[01] GUL ARRIVES IN JAPANPresident Abdullah Gul yesterday arrived in Tokyo, Japan, to pay an official visit upon the invitation of Japanese Emperor Akihito. Speaking to reporters after his arrival, Gul said, "Turkey and Japan enjoy good relations and we are here yield results from our deep-rooted friendship with Japan." Stressing that this is the first presidential-level visit from Turkey to Japan, he said that the visit would open a new page to implement the economy, tourism and investment potential between the two countries. Gul said that he would promote investment opportunities in Turkey during his talks with Japanese officials and investors and added that Turkey should increase its share in foreign investments of Japan and attract more Japanese tourists. Gul characterized his visit as an important opportunity to activate the actual economic potential between Turkey and Japan. Stating that the Turkish Year celebrated in Japan in 2003 highly contributed to Turkey's promotion, Gul also said, "Turkey declared the year 2010 as the Japanese Year and this will also boost cultural relations with Japan." Gul added, "We desire to see the Japanese Emperor in Turkey during the Japanese Year celebrations in 2010." Gul's visit will mainly focus on economy and seek ways to increase bilateral trade volume with Japan and to draw more Japanese investments in Turkey. Japan's direct investments in foreign countries were about $73 billion in 2007 and Turkey's share in those investments was only $2 billion The Japanese investments in Turkey are expected to reach $4 billion thanks to the visit. /Star/[02] ERDOGAN TO TOUT INVESTMENTS OPPORTUNITIES IN TURKEYPrime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will chair an economy meeting that will bring together senior representatives of 18 multinational companies, high- level officials from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) as well as four leading business associations of Turkey. The meeting will be held by the Turkey Investment Advisory Council (YDK) in Istanbul on June 18 to promote investments opportunities in Turkey for the prominent multinational companies whose annual sales reach hundreds of billions of dollars. Erdogan has chaired YDK's four meetings so far. /Star/[03] BABACAN HOLDS TALKS IN THE USForeign Minister and chief negotiator for Turkey's European Union talks Ali Babacan, currently in the US, yesterday delivered a speech to the Atlantic Council think-tank. Stating that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has made many reforms to improve human rights and democracy for all citizens, he added, "We made reforms to guarantee the laws committed much more easily and to improve all citizens' conditions regardless of their religious, cultural or ethnical origin." Stressing that Turkey had to confront realities and speak about their problems, Babacan said, "Otherwise, Turkey couldn't find solutions to its problems. We have coped with problems one by one by since 2002." Touching on the case seeking the AKP’s closure, Babacan stated that they didn't know when the case would end up, that the decision would be conclusive and have to be respected whether they are pleased or not. Babacan also met with Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman and Secretary of Treasury Henry Paulson. Issues such as energy cooperation and investment possibilities of the US firms in Turkey were discussed during the gatherings. /Sabah-Aksam/[04] AB TV TO BROADCAST ENGLISH TO PROMOTE TURKEY BETTER IN EUROPEState Minister Mehmet Aydin yesterday said that they were working on a TV project, calling "AB TV" which will broadcast English to promote Turkey better in the Europe. Speaking about newly adopted bill which Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT) would be allowed to broadcast in local and regional languages and dialects, Aydin said that this wasn't enough to adopt a bill and that firstly the infrastructure should be established. /Turkiye/[05] BAYKAL: "ETHNIC IDENTITY IS ABOUT HONOR"Ethnic identity is "a person's honor and a source of pride for the state," main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Deniz Baykal said yesterday. Speaking at his party's Agriculture and Farmer Assembly meeting in southeastern province of Sanliurfa, Baykal said that different ethnic identities didn't threaten the state, but rather they were wealth of the country. Blaming terrorism, Baykal said no one has the right to harm innocent people. "We shall stay away from terrorism, and not back terrorists even indirectly, but we'll try to convince them for peaceful means," the CHP leader stated. Concerning the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government's recent initiative to increase investments as part of the Southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP), Baykal urged the premier to complete the project soon. "GAP is a project for Turkey's peace and prosperity and aims to end regional unfairness," added Baykal. Meanwhile, CHP's tour of the region began with a tragic accident when the secretary general of the party's youth branch, Ersin Caldir, lost his life after hitting his head on a bridge while traveling on top of the party bus. /Hurriyet/[06] TOP COURT TO TAKE UP HEADSCARF ISSUE TODAYThe Constitutional Court will announce today, or tomorrow at the latest, its verdict on a constitutional amendment allowing women to wear Islamic headscarves at universities. The main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) applied to the top court for the annulment of the law. The decision is expected to have important repercussions for the closure case against the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), as Chief Public Prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya pointed the AKP's headscarf legislation as an evidence of its anti-secular leanings in the indictment for the separate closure case. /Turkish Daily News/[07] CB REVISES ECONOMIC EXPECTATIONSFollowing release of inflation figures for May, higher than expectations, the Central Bank revised next year's inflation target to 7.5 percent from 4 percent. Speaking to Reuters, CB Governor Durmus Yalcin said that the bank would do its best to ensure price stability, and decrease inflation figures into one digit at the end of the year, which are expected to increase in summer. Durmus also underlined that the revision was needed for middle term planning, and that didn't mean the CB would make concessions on its tight monetary policy. /Hurriyet/[08] AZERBAIJAN PRESIDENT: "NO ISSUE CAN BE SOLVED IN THIS REGION WITHOUT TURKEY-AZERBAIJAN COOPERATION"After his meeting with Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev in Nakhchevan, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday stated that they agreed on Azerbaijan's offering necessary facilities to meet a part of Turkey's natural gas need through Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum natural gas pipeline. Aliyev told a press conference that Turkey's support was very important and that the two countries had similar stances towards all issues. "No issue can be solved in this region without the cooperation between Turkey and Azerbaijan, " he said. For his part, Erdogan said that Turkey wanted Upper Karabakh problem to be solved within the framework of Azerbaijan's territorial integrity and in line with international laws. "Turkey will do its utmost for a lasting peace in southern Caucasus," said Erdogan and expressed pleasure over Azerbaijan's support to Turkish Cypriots. He added that economic relations between Turkey and Azerbaijan were developing and that Turkish investments in Azerbaijan reached $5.5 billion. /Milliyet/[09] EP'S SOCIALISTS: "THE EU WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO SOLVE ANY OF ITS ISSUES WITHOUT GIVING A KEY ROLE TO TURKEY"The Socialists, European Parliament's (EP) second largest group, yesterday proposed EP to give a key role to Turkey in the Black Sea and Mediterranean Unions. At a press conference in Brussels, Socialist Group Chairman Hannes Swoboda said that the EU would not be able to solve any of its issues without giving a key role to Turkey. "Which of its problems can the EU solve without Turkey?" he said, adding, "Can it secure the energy resources, or diversify its energy supplies? Can it solve the immigration problem, clean the Mediterranean and the Black Sea and protect the regional security and stability? Or solve the Syria-Israel dispute? Or establish dialogue with Islamic states or solve the integration problems of the Muslim population in Europe?" Swoboda also said that they were fully supporting Turkey's EU bid and pointed out that their proposal was not an offer for privileged partnership. /Milliyet/FROM THE COLUMNS… FROM THE COLUMNS… FROM THE COLUMNS… [10] ASIAN CENTURYBY ERDAL SAFAK (SABAH)Columnist Erdal Safak comments on President Abdullah Gul's visit to Japan and Turkish-Japanese relations. A summary of his column is as follows: "Let me start the first article I write on Tokyo, where I came with President Abdullah Gul, with some observations and determinations. Firstly, the first half of the 20th century was the one for Europe and the second for the US. The 21st century will be the century of Asia. Secondly, the Eastern-Western competition which has vanished with the end of the Cold War is coming back. New Asian states such as China, Japan and India will undertake the role of the former Soviets Union or the Eastern block. Thirdly, the area of settling accounts for the Eastern-Western competition was Europe and the Middle East. The new one will take place in Africa and Eurasia. As soon as Gul deplaned, he talked to press members, including me, at the hotel and gave the message that this historical visit -- as it's the first visit paid on the presidential level -- should be considered in line with this perspective. In other words, as he said, 'Turkey, enjoying a rich past, bright future and a great potential' has to harmonize with geopolitical changes in order to put its trump cards to good use in this competition. This situation means that his visit to Japan consists of both short-term and long-term plans. Short-term political plans consist of strengthening relations between the two countries, which are described as 'perfect' by Gul. As is known, Turkey is a candidate for the temporary UN Security Council membership in the period of 2009-2010. Japan requests that balances at the Security Council which were established in line with the post-Second World War conditions are reestablished. This situation shows that it also wants to become a permanent member to the Security Council. Germany, India, South Africa and Brazil also mention similar requests. Ankara and Tokyo made a decision to make cooperation on the issue. Japan will support us for the temporary membership and we'll provide them with support for permanent membership. Short-term economic goals are to increase the trade volume between the two countries, which is really low, attract higher amounts of Japanese capital to Turkey and increase the number of Japanese tourists visiting Turkey. We can reach these goals in a reasonable period of time. But Turkey actually aims to obtain a good role in the 'Big Game' to be played in Africa and Eurasia and not to miss the target of the 'Asian Century.' The way of doing this is cooperating with leading actors and making joint investments with the third countries, for example, establishing cooperation between the Turkish contracting sector, which ranks the third in the world, and Japan and working in cooperation in the Middle East and Africa. Silent but determined efforts are underway to prepare the infrastructure for this. For example, Turkey also participated in the International African Development Conference, attended by 52 of 53 African countries, in Yokohama last week as an observer. As I mentioned above, there's a cutthroat competition for Africa. A similar conference was held in India, prior to China and it was followed by Japan. Now it's Turkey's turn. An African summit will be held in Istanbul on the leaders' level on August 18-21, because, as Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said at the conference held in Yokohama, Africa will become the engine which will turn the wheels of the world's economy in the near future, not by burgling the dark continent, but by putting its great resources and potential to good use; not by making colonists and corrupt leaders rich, but by prospering the nations. Asians, who are the new super power of the century, will never let Europeans or Westerners exploit Africa again. Turkey supports and shares this determination as well." Turkish Press Review Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |
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